In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard driveusb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. Mar, 2020 follow the windows 10 fat32 format tutorial to format hdd to fat32 or format external hard drive to fat32 in windows 10. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. How to format usb driveexternal hard drive on macos catalina. So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both windows and mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with windows pc and mac. However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step.
If you format your external hard drive to hfs, you can use it on mac and linux by removing journaling. Give the partition a name and select exfat for the format. Create and format a hard disk partition windows help. Find out how to format an external drive or usb disk making the drive work with both windows pc and mac can read and write. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat.
If you want to format your external hard drive to work with mac and windows computers, you should use exfat. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Nov 22, 2019 i have an old external 1 tb hard drive id like to format for use with apple time machine backup. If virus or malware has ruined your hard drive, you can format the entire partition. How to format a disk or drive in windows 10 format is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solidstate drive, or usb flash drive for initial use to accept windows files. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. How to create and format a hard disk partition in windows 10. Fortunately, there are some mac hard drive format software or smart disk formatting applications can help you securely and easily format, reformat, or erase hard drive under mac os. To format your external drive hard drive in windows which works with both platforms, first plugin your drive with windows machine. One simple way to make the drive readable on both platforms is to format it to exfat, which both operating systems can understand. If you move a hard drive between the two operating systems, heres what you need to know. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata.
Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file system, but we dont recommend it for hard drives. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Now, click on the top partition, name it windows, and change its format to msdos. If you want to use the usb devices in windows you have to know how to do it.
How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. However, when we connect a ntfs formatted disk to mac, mac os. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Formatting the disk you can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. Select exfat when formatting an external drive with windows. Next, under the partition layout column, specify the number of partitions you want. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Give your settings a final lookover and click apply.
How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows 10 backups. However, when we connect a ntfs formatted disk to mac, mac os x doesnt allow us to write files to the drive neither edit files, though it can read a ntfs drive. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. Simply follow any of the methods discussed in the article and successfully format your drive to exfat file system. Plug your hd into the mac and open disk utility, which can be accessed by searching for it in spotlight.
Apr 17, 2020 how to format your hard drive to exfat file system on windows 10. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. In general, windows builtin tools disk management and diskpart can format drive. Now that you know which format to use, check out our guide on how to format your hard. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. Aug 31, 2016 to create a partition or volume the two terms are often used interchangeably on a hard disk, you must be logged in as an administrator, and there must be either unallocated disk space or free space within an extended partition on the hard disk. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. How to format external hard drive for pc, mac and linux. If you want to transfer files from a mac to windows pc and vice versa using an external portable hard drive then you have to have the external drive formatted in a file system both oss can. Mar 29, 2019 how to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. You can apply the thirdparty solution to format fat32 in windows 10 even when there is no fat32 option in windows 10 explorer or disk management. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats.
How to format new hard drive on windows 10 windows central. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on your mac errors can damage your hard disk and prevent it from functioning properly. With disk utility open, locate the hard drive you want to partition and select partition. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. Jan 17, 2019 starting clean how to format new hard drive on windows 10 formatting is an essential task before starting to use a new drive, and in this guide, well show you how to do it on windows 10. The problem is that the disk is currently formatted as ntfs and is not readable with time machine. Oct 25, 2016 usb devices,that are formatted in mac format. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. In the disk management, youll see your external hard drive as partition or. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina.
How to format an external drive to work seamlessly with macs. Connect the empty external hd to your mac and launch disk utility. Read mac formatted drives with windows the tech guy. How to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc.
As both windows and mac provide native solutions to format hard drive, you should avoid using any unreliable thirdparty tool. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system part 3. It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for mac and windows. Gpt is a newer format supporting larger capacities, but isnt compatible with. When you use a hard disk drive, time machine will take a while to back up your mac. Nov 19, 2015 how to format an external hard drive or pen drive. Usb drives and external hard drives on macos catalina are used for storing and backing up important data such. This article shows you how to format an external hard drive via different methods, and you can follow these methods to format external hard drive for pc, mac or linux.
Macdisk is a 32bit application and runs under all recent versions of windows vista and 78 included, even 64 bits. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at. Select the drive from the left sidebar, then click the partition tab. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. Then your western digital external hard drive is ready to use on your mac and on your windows. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods.
If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. Out of the box, windows can not read or write hfs drives, and macs are. The below steps for formatting external drive is for windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of windows.
How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on mac. For example, in the screenshot below, the mac formatted drive is disk 2. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. Sep 26, 2018 windows pc and mac use different filesystems.
Format wd elements for mac and pc have your drive for both. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. Then click the second partition, name it mac, and change its format to mac os extended journaled. Mac can read all the file system formats including windows msdos, fat, fat32. Apr 18, 2019 heres how to wipe the data off a hard drive, ssd, or external drive in windows 10 and macos. This post will teach you how to format your mac s hard disk. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. How to wipe a hard drive in windows 10 and macos techradar. Format external hard disk drive for mac os and windows. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. If you dont want to format the external hard drive for mac exclusively, you can choose msdos fat or exfat. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility posted by ant on march 11th, 2012 43 comments if you have an external hard drive or usb flash drive that youd like to use on both macs and windows pcs, choosing the right file system to format. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc.
Format external hard drive with windows builtin tool. Partition a hard drive for macos time machine and windows. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format. There are specific thirdparty systems, like digital camcorders, and sony playstation 3, which need the drives to be formatted in either fat32 or exfat format. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. You can select the exfat format when using the disk utility to format the drive. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under mac os.
Mac os x sierra open disk utility and click the drive you want to format. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to choose the. Make sure your external hard drive is attached and mounted to. Apfs or mac os extended select the volume in the disk utility sidebar, then check the information on the right. Mar 31, 2020 how to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or msdoc is the formatting option for pc. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured.
Select the new untitled partition so we can format it as exfat for use with both mac and windows. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard. Therefore, based on these three file systems, we have two methods to make external hard drive compatible with mac.
Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Choosing the right format for your external hard drive b. First to format your wd elements external drive to mac os extended journaled file system. You would not be able to use this disk for long hd videos and large. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility.
How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. Open the start menu and search for disk management. Two ways to make external hard drive compatible with mac and pc fat32, exfat and ntfs are three file systems for external drive in windows, while ntfs is readonly on mac. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard. How to format your hard drive to exfat file system on windows. However, to use it on windows you can hfs explorer read only. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume.
For whatever reason you need to create and format a hard disk partition in windows 10, following lets see how to perform this task. Therefore, make sure that the file system is supported by your mac or windows. May 29, 2018 to format external drive to file system compatible with mac and pc, connect the drive to your computer and follow the detailed steps given below take formatting hard drive to exfat in windows 7 for example. With exfat, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years. You can select to use a fat, fat32, exfat, ntfs, or refs file system when formatting. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. Open the disk management tool by rightclicking this pc manage disk management. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. Mac os journaled is the formatting option for mac and ntfs or. Connect your external hard drive to your windows 10 pc. This also allows you to restore time machine backups on windows. If you have already joined the data loss club unwillingly, then try running diy applications to recover data from mac and windows.
Click the format popup menu, then choose one of the following. Select the volume in the finder, then choose file get info from the menu bar. In general, windows builtin tools disk management and diskpart can format drive to exfat easily. If this is the case for you, rightclick the drive you want to format and click initialize disk. Format your western digital my passport external hard drive to fat32 or exfat format so to transfer the data between a mac and windows system conveniently. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Formatting your drive to exfat file system is very easy. While formatting, you would be asked to pick a file system for the disk.
Mar 15, 2018 windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Select the mbr or gpt partition table format and click ok to create a partition table for the disk. Jun 30, 2018 you will learn how to format the external hard disk which has default ntfs format, to make it compatible with mac os. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux. Open system information and select storage in the sidebar. Please keep in mind that reformatting will result in the loss of all the data on the hard drive so make sure you back up your data elsewhere before starting. Rightclick in the unallocated space on the initialized disk and. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. To start, your first step will be to find disk utility. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for both mac and pc, you have to.
This will prompt a new window asking you to select a partition style for your disk. From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Please see below on how to reformat your external hard drive on mac and windows. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Click erase and from the format dropdown select exfat. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac cnet. The exfat format supports virtually any size hard drive and file, unlike the outdated fat32 format. In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. To utilize the hard disk space on your windows 10 pc more efficiently, you can create new partitions.
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